Closet of Shame

Every so often, I take a step back and assess my Yarn Closet.  My Yarn Closet holds my stash, organized in Elfa drawers with labels indicating the different weights.  Along with my stash are my WIPs.  So you can see why I sometimes refer to my Yarn Closet as my Closet of Shame.  I've been known to go on yarn shopping binges, only to come home with skeins and skeins of yarn that I have no plans for.  And better yet, I'll wind up some yarn, start a project, shove it in a plastic bag and not only let the yarn for the project languish in the closet, but the needles too.  And then I go out and buy more needles.  You can see (and probably know) it's a sad sad cycle.

When I do take this occasional step back, I roll open the closet door, literally step back and usually end up shaking my head in disgust.  Then, I make the empty vow to never buy yarn again, and to start finishing up some WIPs.  Thankfully, the second promise to myself is much more fun than the first.  So tackling WIPs is what I did.

I previously blogged about Kirkwood which was a WIP - one that I had started way back in February.  It felt so good to finish something, like cleaning out your refrigerator or going through your closet for clothes to donate.  So I decided to continue down this feel-good-WIP-finishing path and I was able to finish another project, one I had started way way back in 2012.  I had the perfect motivation too: a birthday present.  I decided to finish up my Quill for a dear friend's birthday, a fellow knitter - someone who could truly appreciate it.

One of the dangers of 1) not being organized and 2) leaving WIPs sit in your Closet of Shame for more than a year is that I lost track of what yarn I was using for the project and what yarn I had laying around from various Brooklyn Tweed projects.  So there were some dye lot issues.  I used just one color - Fossil - and you can see how different the main part of the shawl is from the border, which is much lighter.  Thankfully, I think the effect is kind of cool, but I've learned my lesson.  

Quill was such a fun knit, I have to say.  I'm not the best, most enthusiastic lace knitter but this had such a great rhythm.  The garter stitch center is a no-brainer, and the feather and fan motif is so subtle with all of the garter rows inbetween.  At first the knitted-on lace border seemed a little tedious, but once I got into the rhythm of it, it turned out to be the most productive way to bind off!  Killing two birds with one stone.  Amazing.

The only better feeling of finishing another WIP was seeing my friend's face when she opened the present.